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[mikewhite85]

I'm 40 and trees are tuff but as times gone on the job has gotten easier and I've got harder. Office job people don't get it the guys my age are soft and weak. No thanks I made the right call. When I'm older I can just run 1 machine it's no work at all. Mini skid- grapple loader truck are not hard work. I have no joint pain and blood pressure that may b too low in great shape for age and size.

Working smarter, not harder!

Older tree guys do have a rep for being all worn out- but it's mostly because of other poor life choices they've made, especially substance abuse

My guy who grind stumps still occasionally climbs for us at the ripe age of 63. His technique is very old school but is actually faster than most climbers I know and doesn't seem to have any health issues.


I've also worked with Beastmaster here on AS when I lived in Cali. Great climber and healthy lifestyle now in his mid sixties.

 

[mikewhite85]

This week's job. Flopped 6 pines and staged for a 1590xp track chipper from another local tree company. My brother went to school with the owners son so I guess we have an in. Looking forward to seeing this machine in action. We will be shooting the chips of the bluff into the woods.

I'll try to take some action shots of the chipping on Friday. The sight is so inaccessible I can barely get the giant to the work site. It's a 10 min round trip to where the logs have to be staged.

I don't think I put a high enough price on this job. Were at 2.5 days and still have to chip and 4 more mill logs to forward to the staging area . Job was bid at $7,200. I think $9,200 would have been the sweet spot. Still a half day to go. Who else is going to do this kind of work?

Looks like you've got some great equipment to git er done! Hopefully that tracked chipper isn't too spendy for you.

 

[ZinTrees]

thoughts on crane slings? yesterday I used 2 20ft 2" webbing slings (eye to eye) that the crane operator supplied, however he would let me use any certified sling I felt safe with
osha says no knots, but also says to attatch them following manufacturer instructions (they arent very clear how they write it, and make it hard to find)
so, if the MFG says its fine to use knots, but osha says its not, who do you listen to? it being a tree job osha doesnt have much say anyways, so id figure as long as there are tags on the slings with SWL then a cow hitch or running bow is fine? I see a lot of people running rope slings, but not seeing much saying you are allowed to do it

gonna get dragged for this one, IDGAF

 

[tree MDS]

Finally got ahold of one of those good time Charlie jobs. Job is about one min from shop, bid at three days top dollar. We (well, I) started cutting at around 10:00 by the time we got all set up. Must’ve knocked out an honest half of it, just flopping trees and stuffing them in the chipper with mini G. Two loads of chips out from the back end of the property.

Best part was I got paid in cash up front and the people are in Canada so not a soul to bother us.

Then I sold two days work on the way to dump chips tonight. Pretty ideal day imo.

 

[tree MDS]

This week's job. Flopped 6 pines and staged for a 1590xp track chipper from another local tree company. My brother went to school with the owners son so I guess we have an in. Looking forward to seeing this machine in action. We will be shooting the chips of the bluff into the woods.

I'll try to take some action shots of the chipping on Friday. The sight is so inaccessible I can barely get the giant to the work site. It's a 10 min round trip to where the logs have to be staged.

I don't think I put a high enough price on this job. Were at 2.5 days and still have to chip and 4 more mill logs to forward to the staging area . Job was bid at $7,200. I think $9,200 would have been the sweet spot. Still a half day to go. Who else is going to do this kind of work?

Those track chippers are a bad ass specialty piece in their own right. I was a sub on a job many years ago where one was cruising around. Very cool. My favorite move was when the kid running it would spin the chute while simultaneously articulating the flapper at the end of the chute during broadcasting of the chips. I love that little piston on the end of the chute lol.

 

[tree MDS]

Working smarter, not harder!

Older tree guys do have a rep for being all worn out- but it's mostly because of other poor life choices they've made, especially substance abuse

My guy who grind stumps still occasionally climbs for us at the ripe age of 63. His technique is very old school but is actually faster than most climbers I know and doesn't seem to have any health issues.
View attachment 1017229

I've also worked with Beastmaster here on AS when I lived in Cali. Great climber and healthy lifestyle now in his mid sixties.

Is that Beast!!?? I remember him!!

 

[mikewhite85]

Yup! He still pokes around here from time to time. He taught me a lot about climbing and really got me started with more modern techniques.

We've had a nice week working local jobs close to home besides a day on that pipeline contract. On Monday we ship everything back up the 45 min drive to corning, NY for a week of residential jobs.

I can't say I love the drive but it's nice to keep 5 guys busy full time. We have work booked into November now and trying to fit a crew in a day or 2 on that pipeline job every week. I'd love to spend a few dedicated weeks with 2 crews but the 45 day minimum lead time on invoicing is a bit of cash flow killer in the meantime.... here I am yammering again.

What do you mean by "good time charlie" jobs? Gravy train?

I thought a gtc was a hack? I get lost in the arborist site colloquialisms.

Oh did I tell you guys my daughter's soccer team is sponsored by my main competitor?? At first it was super annoying but we later got a good chuckle out of it.



Do you guys find any success sponsoring youth sports? Besides annoying your competition???

 

[Rabid K9]

Working smarter, not harder!

Older tree guys do have a rep for being all worn out- but it's mostly because of other poor life choices they've made, especially substance abuse

My guy who grind stumps still occasionally climbs for us at the ripe age of 63. His technique is very old school but is actually faster than most climbers I know and doesn't seem to have any health issues.
View attachment 1017229

I've also worked with Beastmaster here on AS when I lived in Cali. Great climber and healthy lifestyle now in his mid sixties.

Yep, bad diet, smoking etc, people blame it their ‘hard working’ life. On the ‘smarter’ front, developments in equipment really help as well.

One of the things I enjoy is the level of fitness & hard edge treework gives. Enjoying blowing up people who think they are ‘fit’.

Old mate is rocking a pretty new 500i on that crane removal.

 

[Groundman One]

including the part where I showed up every single one of you that thought I couldnt do it, or id get myself killed
at no point did we have anything flip over, swing, or hit me, or a groundman...

I'm concerned about the groundmen, of course.

 

[dbl612]

thoughts on crane slings? yesterday I used 2 20ft 2" webbing slings (eye to eye) that the crane operator supplied, however he would let me use any certified sling I felt safe with
osha says no knots, but also says to attatch them following manufacturer instructions (they arent very clear how they write it, and make it hard to find)
so, if the MFG says its fine to use knots, but osha says its not, who do you listen to? it being a tree job osha doesnt have much say anyways, so id figure as long as there are tags on the slings with SWL then a cow hitch or running bow is fine? I see a lot of people running rope slings, but not seeing much saying you are allowed to do it

gonna get dragged for this one, IDGAF

osha specifies no knots in slings. they do not mean the rope slings that only tree guys use.

 

[treebilly]

The rope slings we use still need to be tagged properly. I know that Wesspur did break test on theirs using the cow hitch as the termination to come up with the WLL. Most rope slings come with a WLL but for crane work they have to be rated for overhead lifting

 

[tree MDS]

Half rotted, rat infested 30 year homeowner brush piles from deep in the backyard aren’t quite the hell they used to be.

Back in the day I would’ve backed in the old Chevy and my 76hp bandit 200+ and we would’ve had at it. Never let that kind of stuff keep us from the better tree work at a place.

 

[Helmstein]

Half rotted, rat infested 30 year homeowner brush piles from deep in the backyard aren’t quite the hell they used to be.

Back in the day I would’ve backed in the old Chevy and my 76hp bandit 200+ and we would’ve had at it. Never let that kind of stuff keep us from the better tree work at a place.
View attachment 1017620View attachment 1017621

Crazy that you can lift right over the side of that tall truck. It's like my baby giant dumping into my dump trailor but on a bigger level. Pretty sweet!

 

[tree MDS]

Crazy that you can lift right over the side of that tall truck. It's like my baby giant dumping into my dump trailor but on a bigger level. Pretty sweet!

Yeah, it’s pretty fun sometimes. The equipment and work keeps me going. Have a good bunch of ground guys now too. We seem to get bigger jobs so it’s working out pretty good.

Having my old guy back from jail is really helping out too. He can run the machines somewhat too, pull up plyboard with the other two, forward trees, etc.

 

[ZinTrees]

The rope slings we use still need to be tagged properly. I know that Wesspur did break test on theirs using the cow hitch as the termination to come up with the WLL. Most rope slings come with a WLL but for crane work they have to be rated for overhead lifting

I am aware they gotta be tagged, just not sure where the fine print is on tree specific rope slings
I remember reading in an osha page at some point rope is perfectly fine for a balancer, and doesnt need to be tagged
will call my crane company and ask
he really doesnt care much as long as its tagged, if its in the book he doesnt care

 

[ZinTrees]

osha specifies no knots in slings

this is the part confusing me, they dont say knots are ok in rope, they just say "no knots"
also say "follow manufacturer guidelines to attach slings"
if the MFG says a knot is fine, but osha doesnt, who do you listen to?

 

[dbl612]

this is the part confusing me, they dont say knots are ok in rope, they just say "no knots"
also say "follow manufacturer guidelines to attach slings"
if the MFG says a knot is fine, but osha doesnt, who do you listen to?

no sling manufacturer allows knots in slings. period. a rope is not a sling do what you want with it.

 

[mikewhite85]

Half rotted, rat infested 30 year homeowner brush piles from deep in the backyard aren’t quite the hell they used to be.

Back in the day I would’ve backed in the old Chevy and my 76hp bandit 200+ and we would’ve had at it. Never let that kind of stuff keep us from the better tree work at a place.
View attachment 1017620View attachment 1017621

The height on the boom is awesome. Do you have a technique for handling rotting brush like that with the bypass grapple? My guys ended up getting frustrated with our bmg. It seems smaller rotting brushy stuff would fall out too easily.

 

[tree MDS]

The height on the boom is awesome. Do you have a technique for handling rotting brush like that with the bypass grapple? My guys ended up getting frustrated with our bmg. It seems smaller rotting brushy stuff would fall out too easily.

Actually my tractor grapple would have been my first choice, but the grapple function has been down all year (definitely amazing the volume of brush those grapple rakes can grab) Last winter mine just stopped working. I’m thinking a solenoid or fuse or something. I haven’t bothered to bring it to JD yet (the tractor needs some other work too), but have been talking about it a lot.

The big grapple on the giant is a lot wider than the little ones and has a ton of force, so it gripped the piles pretty good, hardly anything fell out along the way from out back. Doesn’t hold near what the tractor grapple can though. The best for these piles would’ve been both. I could’ve used the giant to fish the piles out from between these trees and on this (mostly stolen) rock wall where they had been stacked forever, then positioned them for the tractor grapple. Would’ve been a lot fewer trips out.

 

[tree MDS]

In short, I had to work with the limited resources I had at my disposal. Lol

Definitely gonna get on fixing the tractor after that though!